Customer Reviews

Hunab Ku: 77 Sacred Symbols for Balancing Body and Spirit

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"In Hunab Ku, you'll find seventy-seven images of home-multiple ways to view or earth and ourselves. These images, like the Hunab Ku itself, measure and move us and encourage us to embark upon our own sacred journey. The Hunab Ku lies at the very center of these images, reminding us to balance our intentions, to center our understandings, and to become more conscious of what ancient wisdom continues to teach all of us today." - From the book

Hunab Ku is an ancient Mayan symbol that represents the joining of opposites. Hunab means "one state of being" and Ku means "God". Masculine and feminine, analytical and intuitive, objective and subjective, yang and yin, conscious and unconscious, external and internal-the Hunab Ku speaks to the abyss between opposing forces and, in fact, serves as a bridge between them. The archetype of the Hunab Ku is the "space between" that reflects oneness with God and the unity of all things.

The Mayans constructed several detailed calendars and these calendars reflected cycles of the Earth and humanity itself. After each cycle of 5,125 years, the "universe takes a deep breath and begins again", and according to the Maya Long Count Calendar, humanity is posed on the edge of a great unfolding of balance and understanding. Many have called this the Age of Aquarius, but the Mayans called it the Age of Itza-Age of Consciousness. Some interpretations have set the winter solstice of 2012 as the time marking a gateway to the galaxies where Hunab Ku-the great mover-will pulse and fill us all with intelligent energy.

To help prepare humanity for this cosmic awakening, authors Karen Speerstra and Joel Speerstra have presented 77 sacred symbols that create an interactive system for learning, healing, and meditation. These 77 symbols are archetypes that are universal, arising from the collective unconscious. As visual metaphors, the symbols reflect, like mirrors, the patterns that are deeply imbedded in each one of us. These archetypes bypass the rational mind, arrive on the wings of synchronicity, and invite us to journey inward. Archetypal symbols like those presented in Hunab Ku can explode us into different dimensions of understanding, restoring balance, energizing creativity, and promoting healing if we but allow them entrance.

The 77 archetypal images are organized into groups of seven color palettes, each reflecting the seven chakras. Eleven archetypal symbols are associated with each chakra, depicting the energetic pattern of the image as it relates to the seven energy vortices and their corresponding issues, gifts, and challenges. The lower chakras--represented by red, orange, and yellow-connect to the physical side of life. The upper chakras-represented by blue, indigo, and violet-connect us to the spiritual side of life. In the center likes a field of green which connects to both the heart chakra and the Hunab Ku. This area marks our central union with one another and joins the images of the body and the spirit.

There are several ways Hunab Ku can be read:

* Conventionally, from beginning to end, as a mini ancient art history tour
* One color group of eleven images at a time
* As an oracle where you ask a powerful open-ended question and then turn to a random page
* Roll dice and generate random numbers for different types of intuitive readings
* Use a pendulum to dowse the Hunab Ku symbol for numbers/images that speak to your questions

Hunab Ku is an unconventional book that serves as a spiraling labyrinth of archetypal consciousness. The physical images span from Red 1 Great Bear (Solitude) to Green 39 Hunab Ku (Lover). The spiritual images span from Green 39 Hunab Ku (Relationships) to Violet 1 Unicorn (Unity). So one could move down a path towards the center (39) and then move back out towards the world again by passing through numbers 38 through 1.

Here are a few symbols from the book:

RED

Scorpion (Conflict)
Womb (Gestation)
Ouroboros (Unconsciousness)

ORANGE

Mother (Intuition)
Water (Movement)
Giant (Control)

YELLOW

Star (Inspiration)
Twins (Androgyny)
Wheel (Change)

GREEN

Dolphin (Addiction)
Healer (Wholeness)
Phoenix (Hope)

BLUE

Teacher (Knowledge)
Sound (Vibration)
Magician (Journey)

INDIGO

Moon (Dreams)
Wise Old One (Rest)
Chalice (Quest)

VIOLET

Scarab (Manifestation)
Double Spiral (Infinity)
Crown (Reward)

For each symbol there is a re-drawn color plate of a petroglyph, artifact, figurine, carving, wall mural, etc. These archetypes are from diverse areas such as the Americas, Africa, British Isles, Babylon, India and beyond. For example, Under Mystic (Violet 8), there is a picture of a stone labyrinth (1200 CE) from Chartres, France. For the Serpent (Red 7), there is a picture of the Great Serpent Mound (c. 1000 BCE) from Ohio, U.S.A.

For me, one of the most fascinating elements of this 330-page book is the symbol readings in the back of the book. Each of these readings is comprehensive, combining a series of archetypes for an incredibly accurate and insightful reading. There's an Insight Reading, Work Reading, Rainbow Reading, Courage Reading, and The Bard: Telling Your Story. The authors provide easy to read charts if you want to generate numbers by throwing dice or by assigning number values to the letters of your name, for example.

Frankly, I am amazed at the depth of this book. It "speaks" profoundly on so many levels. I was experiencing physical discomfort that left me feeling nauseous, discouraged and weak. Tarot didn't appeal to me at the time nor did any of my oracle decks. I remembered this book and randomly turn to a page. The symbol I was given, The Phoenix, directly spoke to my situation. Its keyword was "Hope" and offered insight into the renewing of youthfulness and the promise of future lives. (And, as synchronicity would have it, the book mentioned how the Phoenix was featured in the Harry Potter books-and I had just been reading the latest installment of the series!) I felt as through a burden was lifted from my spirit. I kept meditating on it as I went to bed. Whenever I woke up through the night, I kept seeing the Phoenix.

Amazingly, I woke up the next day with the troubling symptom entirely gone. It's been almost 24 hours and I still haven't seen a recurrence of this symptom. I feel more energy and clarity and I believe it has something to do with the symbol of the Phoenix featured in the powerful book Hunab Ku.

If you're fascinated by the world of symbols and archetypes-as well as chakras, energy, mythology, art, sacred geometry, oracles, anthropology, and spiritual evolution-this beautifully illustrated and exhaustively researched book will take you on an amazing journey through both outer and inner worlds. In the center of these worlds lies the Hunab Ku, the threshold between our present age and the coming age of enlightenment-the heart of Oneness and All That Is.

To readers on their own spiritual journey, Hunab Ku brings images of some of the richest symbols of ancient wisdom together with "logos"--the words of the authors that help one to interpret and integrate the wisdom into their own lives. As much a book to be read as one to be used--just as such tools of self-insight as the Tarot, I Ching, and other divinition aids-- Hunab Ku offers the reader a wonderful meditation on the energies of each of the images. The museums next to my office at Harvard University are filled with artifacts from other cultures, ancient times, but they don't speak to a viewer with the richness and depth of wisdom that the Speerstras have brought to the artifacts included in Hunab Ku. A book to be kept close!
Julia Blackbourn, Cambridge MA

Hunab Ku is eminently readable not only because of its straightforward and lucid prose, but for its clever organization. It consists of short essays on the power and meaning of specific primitive symbols that one finds in various cultures--in art, mythology, and oral tradition-symbols that represent ideas and concepts deeply pertinent to the human condition.

The authors have grouped the symbols and their explanatory essays into seven sections. The essays are accompanied by quotations from philosophers, folklore, and great spiritual texts in human history, as well as invocations inscribed in the ruins of ancient temples.

This is a beautiful book, a compendium of ancient insights and fundamental wisdom that leads the reader to contemplate the profound meaning behind the universe and the life that inhabits it. Although it can be read straight through as a sort of treatise on primitive art, many readers will want to keep it by their sides as a frequent spiritual reference-a well-thumbed guide through life's journey.

Christopher D. Costanzo, Bethel, VT

Hunab Ku is a travel guide for your journey of self awareness. Through it you'll travel to cultures and symbols from all periods of humankind, gaining insight into what makes us all human at the core. The book is a treasure of knowledge beautifully presented. And as with travelers--some travel for the sights, some for the insights--Hunab Ku will lead you anywhere you want to go.

Hunab Ku is a happy wedding of prodigious research and lyric prose. Utilizing 77 ancient archetypal images, this book can be enjoyed as a mini ancient art history course or a resource for insightful meditation.

Once the reader is acquainted with the 77 symbols, he can turn to the end of the book for exercises in chakra healing, insight work, courage and guidance.

Spiced with appropriate quotes from the Egyptian Book of the Dead to Teresa of Avila to Thorton Wilder, Hunab Ku is a delightful journey to self exploration, knowledge and acceptance.

This book is a gem. Reading it was like going on a delightful and enchanting journey to some of the most sacred sights on earth. It is obvious that the authors have done their research. The historical review followed by the spiritual perspective captured the essence of the symbols and provided valuable lessons for living. This is a book that I will keep on my nightstand for easy access.
Daniel S. Hanson
Assistant Professor, Communication Studies
Augsburg College

this is a great symbolizm book. great detail and explainations. you can tell A lot of passion went into making this book.

This is a great book. I learn a lot from it so far, and I will definately continue to learn more about colors, numbers, and great mounds on planet earth

I love this book so much! Have had it for a couple years now and each time I open it I am excited and enlightened by what I read/see. There is so much wisdom in the pages of this book and it is very evident that it was exhaustively researched. I enjoy randomly flipping the pages to any one symbol whenever I feel the need for reflection and healing and I always feel a connection. The symbols and the words really do positively affect me every time. I'm thankful to have this awesome book in my life!!

Beautifully illustrated and powerfully written. I found this book helped balance my chakras, attitude and overall health. Cleverly put together to allow for multiple uses and options for assimilation. A keeper forever.